Chapter 119: The Stitched Man and the Uncanny Defense

I hadn’t even had time to reply before Bai Yue opened the door and stepped out.
Mo Qingyan must have gone out with her to chase the man away first before sending me the message.
From the moment Bai Yue appeared, the man didn’t say a word.
He neither continued his shouting and knocking nor turned to look at her; he simply stood there in silence at the entrance of Room 1.
Bai Yue walked unhurriedly behind him.
The contrast in their figures was stark, with the petite Bai Yue only reaching the tall, thin man’s chest.

“I’m sorry, you’re disturbing us. The family might not be home, and it’s already very late. Could you please come back another day?”

Bai Yue spoke in a flat, monotonous voice, yet she was at least being polite.

The man did not respond, remaining stationary in the shadows of the corridor, appearing as if he hadn’t heard her question at all.
Bai Yue wasn’t in a hurry either, standing quietly behind him.

The two of them looked like they were in a state of meditation, while the atmosphere grew increasingly heavy and oppressive, making me break into a cold sweat.
Although the members of the Supernatural Events Department had repeatedly emphasized that Bai Yue was the strongest among them and must never be provoked, I couldn’t help but worry.

The situation before me was just too eerie.
Finally, the man slowly turned his head, but the sight I glimpsed almost made my heart stop.

Even Xiao Qing, who was peeking with me, couldn’t help but let out a soft “Ah!” of fright.

The man’s face was crooked, his features completely displaced—an eye where the mouth should be, the mouth where the nose belonged, with surgical stitches running between them.
It was as if someone’s facial skin and features had been entirely sliced off and sewn back on haphazardly.

One eyeball was inside his mouth while the other was on his left cheek, both staring at Xiao Qing simultaneously as the mouth on his nose asked: “Little girl, how do I look?”

“You grew crooked,” Bai Yue answered calmly.

She spoke as if the other party truly just had a slightly odd birth defect; there wasn’t the slightest trace of fear in her voice.

“Debts must be paid! It’s time to pay back what you owe!” the man suddenly roared, a murderous glint appearing in his eyes.

Despite his eyes being displaced, I could still feel the killing intent in his gaze as he pulled a dagger from his waist.

“Xiao Yue!” I gripped my jade pendant and rushed out.

Though my legs were trembling with fear, I desperately wanted to help her, unable to let her face this bizarre man alone.
Since his face was so distorted, he was likely some kind of ghost, so a Dharma artifact should be effective against him.
‘If I can just press the jade pendant onto him, it ought to work.’

“Brother Xiao!” Seeing me charge out, Xiao Qing also ran out in a panic.

In her urgency, she even forgot to correct her way of addressing me.
Although it was a split-second decision made in panic, there were now three of us facing this strange, knife-wielding man simultaneously.

Adding Mo Qingyan inside the house, it was four against one—the advantage was mine.

“I don’t owe you anything; you have the wrong person,” Bai Yue shook her head calmly.

She seemed intent on reasoning with this bizarre man who could no longer be described as merely fierce.
On the contrary, the man’s logic was extremely warped, and he seemed completely unable to process Bai Yue’s words.

The mouth on his nose roared: “If you can’t pay, then use your body to settle the debt!”

He raised the gleaming dagger and lunged at Bai Yue.
His tall, thin body created a massive sense of pressure, and I could almost envision the petite girl being easily tackled and stabbed seven or eight times, her blood splattering the floor.
Just then, a streak of black shadow suddenly darted from Bai Yue’s cuff.

With lightning speed, it struck the man’s chest and sent him flying back.
He crashed heavily into the door of Room 12-1, knocking down the funeral wreath.

The shadow retracted into her sleeve at an incredible speed.
I couldn’t even clearly see what it was, only feeling that it resembled some sort of irregular, flexible whip.

Right then, the man scrambled back up, his displaced eyes bloodshot.
He stared at Bai Yue in a rage before charging forward, still brandishing his dagger to strike.

The black shadow snapped out of Bai Yue’s cuff again, lashing the man’s waist like a whip.
He slammed against the wall with a miserable scream, the force of the blow evidently being quite heavy.

This time, the shadow did not retract; instead, it lunged toward the man again.
Under the light, I finally saw its true form—it wasn’t a whip at all, but a centipede!

It was nearly as thick as a human arm and longer than Bai Yue’s own.
Its segmented body was covered in a reflective black carapace, with a hundred crimson legs flailing wildly.

The antennae and venomous fangs on its head were enough to make one’s skin crawl.
The giant centipede struck like a projectile, biting the hand the man used to hold the dagger.

Only then did I notice that even his arms bore traces of being stitched together.

“Argh!!!” I heard the man let out an agonizing cry of pain for the first time.

The centipede bit down hard on his fingers; they say the fingers are connected to the heart, and the intense pain made him unable to hold the dagger, which fell directly to the floor.

“Get away!” He scrambled toward me on all fours.

I hurriedly slapped the jade pendant onto him, but there was no reaction at all.
His body was as hard as cast iron.
I felt as if I had been struck by a jiangshi, sent flying back instantly.
In my daze, something seemed to drop onto me as the man rushed into the stairwell and scrambled down.

Only then did Mo Qingyan emerge from the room to help me up.
She asked Bai Yue: “Human or ghost?”

“Likely a human, but one who has been contaminated; a living human refined through corpse-refining methods,” Bai Yue said.
“Casinos or bars love using this kind of sorcery to create enforcers, though this one’s level is mediocre.”

“Can he still live?” Mo Qingyan asked calmly.

“That depends on how capable his master is,” Bai Yue replied.
“But I suspect even if he could be saved, his master wouldn’t want to waste medicinal ingredients on a mere lackey.”
“It’d be more efficient to turn him into a refined corpse and keep using him.”

“Wait, does that mean Xiao Yue just killed that man?” Xiao Qing asked, sounding a bit panicked.

“What’s there to fear? Anyone daring to use such a half-human, half-ghost creature is likely not running a legal business,” Mo Qingyan sneered.
“Even if he dies, do you think they’d dare to call the police?”
“With those displaced, sewn-on features, they wouldn’t dare let the police perform an autopsy.”

“It wouldn’t matter if they did; I acted in self-defense,” Bai Yue said calmly.

Although the situation did seem like self-defense, calling a centipede attack “self-defense” felt incredibly strange.
By now, the centipede had retracted back into her sleeve.

Such a massive creature was completely invisible from the outside of her clothes.
But the thought of such a hideous thing crawling on her body—didn’t Bai Yue find it uncomfortable?

“Eh?” I suddenly realized that something had dropped when the man knocked me over.

Looking closely, it was actually a bulging wallet, filled to the brim with red banknotes.

Mo Qingyan looked at it and laughed: “I didn’t expect the Pi Xiu to work so quickly; Senior Brother Liang’s method truly is effective.”